Like we’ve said in the past, the platform fee is used to support the service – which includes user support, provider marketing and maintaining tip-top infrastructure. It also gives us the ability to continue innovating the product and growing the value we offer users. While it’s true there are other services that have a lower fee, it’s not necessarily an apples for apples comparison (sites like Freelancer or Elance use a different business model – bidding for jobs etc). We have no hidden costs like: the buyer paying to post a project, the provider needing to pay any subscription, the provider needing to pay more to be higher in listings, the buyer paying more to get the work faster. We also review all providers to ensure Microlancer is a quality marketplace, where you can find buyers willing to pay extra for that quality – rather than a free-for-all where quality is not important, or where you as a freelancer do work without even being sure you’ll get a cent for it! This approach costs more to maintain than some other models.

That said, we appreciate your opinion and feedback on this, and are always considering how we can deliver more value for our providers. So keep it coming! You’re always welcome to email me directly with any thoughts too (jordan@envato.com)

Jords

I think this is the only platform where I should wait for 2 months to be paid

Like we’ve said in the past, the platform fee is used to support the service – which includes user support, provider marketing and maintaining tip-top infrastructure. It also gives us the ability to continue innovating the product and growing the value we offer users. While it’s true there are other services that have a lower fee, it’s not necessarily an apples for apples comparison (sites like Freelancer or Elance use a different business model – bidding for jobs etc). We have no hidden costs like: the buyer paying to post a project, the provider needing to pay any subscription, the provider needing to pay more to be higher in listings, the buyer paying more to get the work faster. We also review all providers to ensure Microlancer is a quality marketplace, where you can find buyers willing to pay extra for that quality – rather than a free-for-all where quality is not important, or where you as a freelancer do work without even being sure you’ll get a cent for it! This approach costs more to maintain than some other models.

That said, we appreciate your opinion and feedback on this, and are always considering how we can deliver more value for our providers. So keep it coming! You’re always welcome to email me directly with any thoughts too (jordan@envato.com)

Jords

I think this is the only platform where I should wait for 2 months to be paid

We hear ya! That’s been one of the biggest pieces of feedback we’ve gotten since launching. The reason the cycle is long is to catch fraudulent activity, which when it happens ends up hurting everyone on the site. Good news is, we’re working on a way to reduce the payout cycle for trusted providers. Nothing to announce yet, but watch this space for more info.

I’m on pretty much every major freelancer site out there. I set up a service on Microlancer and kinda forgot about it, until one day someone ordered my service out of the blue. I’ve already provided some feedback about how the internal tools worked for me, but I had either not noticed or completely forgotten about the fee.

Ho-Ly Sh*T! That hurt. Fortunately my client had an additional piece of work that basically covered the fee, but that fee is WAY too high! Personally, I can’t afford this service, no matter how much traffic you might (supposedly) be able to provide. It’s just not worth it. There are SO MANY other high-traffic sites where I can get tons of work.

I will be removing my service from Microlancer in five minutes, and I won’t return until the fee drops to 10% or better. Nothing personal, it’s just business.

Like we’ve said in the past, the platform fee is used to support the service – which includes user support, provider marketing and maintaining tip-top infrastructure. It also gives us the ability to continue innovating the product and growing the value we offer users. While it’s true there are other services that have a lower fee, it’s not necessarily an apples for apples comparison (sites like Freelancer or Elance use a different business model – bidding for jobs etc). We have no hidden costs like: the buyer paying to post a project, the provider needing to pay any subscription, the provider needing to pay more to be higher in listings, the buyer paying more to get the work faster. We also review all providers to ensure Microlancer is a quality marketplace, where you can find buyers willing to pay extra for that quality – rather than a free-for-all where quality is not important, or where you as a freelancer do work without even being sure you’ll get a cent for it! This approach costs more to maintain than some other models.

Jords

Jordan,

Please drop the business-speak. You make it sound like Microlancer, part of a large empire of sites, a multi-million dollar company, has higher expenses than oDesk, Elance, Freelancer.com, Guru.com, etc. I’m not buying it. Basically you’ve got a profit-margin that is similar to your other product services, and yet your whole business is largely automated.

So just be honest. You prefer a 30% fee structure. And that’s fine, and it’s your choice, and it seems to be working for you. But you’re stepping into a well-established market with lots of competition. So tell me, as a service provider, what type of benefit are you providing me that can possibly justify me giving away an additional 20% of my hard-earned money? So far, I’m not seeing any such benefit…

One final thought – I just went to my account and hit ‘pause’ on my service. I was so afraid that someone else would purchase a job from me before I could get there! Think about that – afraid that I would get a client!

While I was there, I went to my earnings area, where I discovered that Envato/Microlancer will be keeping my money for THIRTY DAYS!!! Evidently they really like the number 30. Again, oDesk and others keep money for a bit, but seven days seems to work just fine for them.

It’s hard to be angry about any of this, though. I’m too busy being utterly baffled!

you can also just increase the price to cover your earnings and envato fee.

I now this tactic doesn’t work if there are people who can work for 20$ a day but you have the same problem on the other freelance websites you’ve mentioned where they can create 10 websites, a video promo and a complete corporate identity package for 10$

doru said
you can also just increase the price to cover your earnings and envato fee.
I now this tactic doesn’t work if there are people who can work for 20$ a day but you have the same problem on the other freelance websites you’ve mentioned where they can create 10 websites, a video promo and a complete corporate identity package for 10$

If I priced things to offset fees, it would look something like this…

Microlancer – $500 price would adjust to $715
Every other service – $500 price would adjust to $555

So if you are a client, a buyer, is it worth the extra $160 to save the steps of bidding?

This gets worse as you move up the price ladder to full web site and design jobs. It gets better if you move down into very small prices, especially under $100.

But from my perspective, if I’m using both services, I’m giving clients a much better price and deal on other sites without sacrificing my profit margin.

dixonge said
Microlancer – $500 price would adjust to $715
Every other service – $500 price would adjust to $555
So if you are a client, a buyer, is it worth the extra $160 to save the steps of bidding?

is the only way you can make microlancer drop their own fee

anyway you are “forgetting” a very important cost that other websites have. They take you money for bidding. This means your 10% is actually much higher if you have a “bad” month. Don’t know if you can go to 30%, maybe not but then you need to calculate time lost in filling bids and understand what client want for a lot of projects you will never work. This is time consuming. Like a lot. You may think is your duty to discover what client want and you have to do it for free but in reality is not. Is the most important step and need careful planing and thinking, fact that most clients ignore. Is why some dudes will bid an unrealistic amount just to be in the list and will win and do a sloppy job

Microlancer works better since you set up a service and “forget” about it till someone contacts you. This in theory, because in practice chances for clients to contact you will be very low if you don’t have low prices.